Spokane, WA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/27/2012 -- The User Profile Tokenization feature allows the merchant to process returning customers without the need to store sensitive and confidential customer information on the merchant’s server. Storing sensitive information requires secure servers, in addition to various certifications. The features include the ability to Add a Profile, Import a Profile, Update a Profile, and Delete a Profile for all your Check or Credit Card transactions.

Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive data with unique identification symbols that retain all the essential information about the data without compromising its security. Tokenization, which seeks to minimize the amount of data a business needs to keep on hand, has become a popular way for small and mid-sized businesses to bolster the security of credit card and e-commerce transactions while minimizing the cost and complexity of compliance with industry standards and government regulations.

Payment card industry (PCI) standards do not allow credit card numbers to be stored on a retailer's point-of-sale (POS) terminal or in its databases after a transaction. To be PCI compliant, merchants must install expensive end-to-end encryption systems or outsource their payment processing to a service provider who provides a "tokenization option." The service provider handles the issuance of the token value and bears the responsibility for keeping the cardholder data locked down.

Some features of using a Stored Profile for Tokenization:
Create and Store a Profile.
Process a Transaction Using the Stored Profile.
Delete a Stored Profile.
Update the Stored Profile.
Retrieve a Stored Profile Credit Card Number.
Issue Credit using the Stored Profile.
Retrieve transaction results of the last transaction.

Process Recurring Transactions or Usage Charges – You bill your customers different amounts or on different days each month, or only when the service is used. (e.g. utility companies or pay-as-you-go cell phones)
Store Customer Data – You want to provide returning customers with the convenience of not having to re-enter their personal data every time they visit your Web site.

Other Features of the Merchant Profile System:
Process Recurring Transactions – You bill your customers different amounts or on different days each month. (e.g. utility companies)
Process Usage Charges – You bill your customers only when the service is used. (e.g. pay-as-you-go cell phones)
Simplify PCI Compliance – You are concerned with PCI compliance and protecting your customers’ confidential information.
Store Customer Data – You want to provide returning customers with the convenience of not having to re-enter their personal data every time they visit your Web site.
Provide Payment Flexibility – Your customers can store multiple payment methods for repeat purchases.
Process Irregular Recurring Charges - You can carge your customers on a recurring basis when the schedule is not consistent.

Visa supports tokenization as a means of replacing Primary Account Numbers (PANs) with non-sensitive surrogate values (known as “tokens”) to eliminate or reduce storage of cardholder data. Tokenization can be implemented independently or in concert with data field encryption for the protection of cardholder information. To support marketplace adoption of tokenization, Visa has developed best practices to assist merchants and other stakeholders in evaluating and adopting tokenization solutions. These best practices should be viewed as high level guidance to be considered for any such solution to assist stakeholders in the Visa payment system.

For more information contact Fastcharge (800) 459-0625

The Fast Charge Payment Gateway™ is an online merchant account services & credit card processing payment gateway solution for businesses and organizations that need a payment gateway solution or payment processor for their ecommerce merchant account. The Fastcharge payment gateway works with over 5000 e-commerce shopping carts and payment syatems. The payment gateway is the connection between the processing Banks and the merchant account.

For more information, visit the Fast Charge web site at www.fastcharge.com or call 1-509-924-6730